Chapter 105 : Huh? I Killed Them?
Jiang He wasn't the only one at the royal autumn hunt.
In fact, because the autumn hunt was an annual event, the Great Xia royal family's hunting party each year numbered several hundred people.
Nobles, promising young people, attendants, guards...
Even after screening,
The combined personnel was certainly not a small number.
In a corner of the hunting palace, Crown Prince Jiang Ge was chatting casually with his advisors.
He had come out this time just to relax. The pressure from last month's Human Gate incident had been tremendous. Even now, the Crown Prince hadn't figured out who among his entourage had betrayed him, and... how that hidden mastermind had managed to place death warriors by his side.
Although that person had been dealt with, investigations had been conducted before the execution.
The backgrounds of those two individuals were supposedly impeccably clean.
If such people would betray him, who could he trust?!!!
He had been paranoid for many days, only recently starting to recover, and was persuaded by Meng Fangyuan to attend the autumn hunt to clear his mind.
"Are there any unexpected people at this autumn hunt?" the Crown Prince asked.
Meng Fangyuan looked at him, his expression contemplative, as if struggling with whether to speak.
He thought that the Crown Prince had come to the autumn hunt to relax, and at most to get closer to his family members, to make it easier to ask for help later.
Should he really bring up topics that would spoil the Crown Prince's mood?
While he was pondering, an advisor spoke up:
"General Chen from the Tianwei Army has a son who just came of age and is attending the autumn hunt this year. Minister Su's daughter from the city... they are all potential allies to cultivate... and there's also Guardian Li from the royal family..."
The advisor listed many names, but the Crown Prince seemed disinterested.
Seeing this, Meng Fangyuan sighed and added:
"That one from the Mu family is also here, accompanying the Ninth Imperial Princess."
"When did those two get together?"
The Crown Prince frowned, unconsciously sitting up straighter.
He had shown little interest in the previous names because his time was limited, and he was destined not to waste precious time on juniors who couldn't develop quickly enough.
But Mu Qinglan...
He admitted that now he experienced a bit of PTSD just hearing her name.
"Probably after the Hundred Flowers Banquet," Meng Fangyuan answered carefully, glancing at the Crown Prince: "I heard that when the Ninth Imperial Princess was targeted by an assassin, the two of them were together."
"..."
The Crown Prince's face darkened.
So it was I who brought them together!
"Forget it, let's not discuss this," the Crown Prince waved his hand and asked: "I heard that in the assassination case that spread widely through the city a few days ago, she was also involved?"
"Yes."
Knowing he didn't care much about such matters, Meng Fangyuan explained in detail the intelligence from the Six Bureaus files.
After listening, the Crown Prince was surprised:
"Why would she seek attention like this? Even if she had a way to find the culprit, there's no advantage to it. Or does she just want fame?"
The Crown Prince had already decided not to continue battling with Mu Qinglan. He was now more concerned about the person who had turned his death warriors against him. But as a former enemy, he would be pleased to see Mu Qinglan stumble.
Preferably a big fall.
"She's young, certainly not as thoughtful as Your Highness," the advisor subtly flattered.
"Forget it, she probably was impulsive this time,"
The Crown Prince breathed a sigh of relief: "If she never made mistakes and could continue thwarting my plans like before, I really wouldn't want to face her directly."
"But now, to make such a decision..."
"Just be careful, let's not talk about it anymore."
○
So, when making this choice, did our bad woman Miss Mu Qinglan consider what would happen?
Her answer is, yes.
She certainly knew that making this choice would attract that assassin's attention.
But due to the convenience of knowing the game's storyline, she already knew the identity of her opponent and the mastermind behind the case. Combined with her own solid strength, this made her unafraid of the threat posed by the assassin.
On the contrary, she could gain many benefits.
Reputation was one aspect, connections were another.
The Great Xia royal family's annual autumn hunt was a channel for upper-class youth to expand their networks. As the royal Ninth Imperial Princess, Jiang He had already declined several visits in this short day.
And that case was Mu Qinglan's channel to consolidate and expand her own connections.
Giving the Bai family reassurance, and getting the Jiang family on board.
Some might think connections are useless, that this world ultimately comes down to transcendent martial power—but while this sounds reasonable, the reality isn't necessarily so straightforward.
Because although second-rank martial power is high, it can easily be checked by the person's own enemies.
Therefore, connections with second-rank individuals are more suitable as trump cards, used to turn the tide, rather than for overwhelming force.
As for her own strength?
The machinations in Heyang City involved high-level schemes. With Mu Qinglan's strength, she couldn't yet interfere based on transcendent power alone. Moreover, time was also insufficient; she couldn't peacefully farm levels to become an invincible sword god, then emerge to destroy the world.
If possible, she would certainly prefer to be a behind-the-scenes mastermind, gradually guiding everything toward her desired outcome.
But was she qualified?
Not enough strength, not enough experience, not enough connections.
So she could only keep expanding.
In the detective novel Sherlock Holmes, there was an invisible underground emperor of European crime, James Moriarty, who was a typical example of network-building.
And now, she was developing in that direction.
"Please call me the good woman, Mu-riarty," Mu Qinglan boasted proudly.
"Qing Qing, I've come to talk about tomorrow's schedule..." At this moment, Jiang He interrupted, seeing that Mu Qinglan's movements were so strange. What was she doing?
Mu Qinglan's face darkened, almost forgetting she was beside her.
"Forget what just happened!"
"Oh."
"..."
"So what was Qing Qing doing just now?"
"I said don't ask!"
○
At the same time, while the two young ladies were playfully bickering outside Heyang City, Zhu Yan put on her night clothes and lightly adjusted the mask on her face.
"Three targets tonight. Let's finish quickly."
As the words fell, she stepped over the wall and quickly disappeared into the shadows of Heyang.
Early the next morning.
In the southern courtyard, Yun Juan, whose injuries had mostly healed, had just woken up. She was in quite a good mood and casually glanced at the morning newspaper.
This glance turned out to be terrible.
"...Hmm."
"Hmm???"
"Three people died in the city last night, and I killed them?"
Yun Juan was completely dumbfounded.